There's an untold number of modern, engaging, attractive learning resources and hobbies available to adults. They still lose to smartphones. Not because those activities are boring, but because picking a smartphone and browsing is so effortless and habit-forming.
Careful with generalizations. I have a kid with unlimited game time on the phone and he will prefer Scratch or book reader nearly all of the time anyway. He has been doing coding games since he was 4. Most kids don't do this only because nobody has shown them how to use computers for anything other than games and social media.
He deleted Socratic app soon after I have shown it to him though, but not because he needed space for games, but rather because "the teacher must not see this". You should have seen the panic in his eyes.
Also, the only social media he is using is classroom Whatsapp, which is effectively required by the school, because there is no other reliable source of information about missed classes and other school matters.
All those kids playing games and scrolling through social media might be just fulfilling teachers' expectations after all.
